Contact

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Support and Become Part of the Morbid Anatomy Museum on #GivingTuesday!

As many regular readers already know, as we are rapidly expanding beyond the limitations of our tiny room on the Gowanus (see above images; more here), we here at Morbid Anatomy are in the process of expanding our little project into a greater vision: The Morbid Anatomy Museum.

The Morbid Anatomy Museum will be full-fledged non-profit institutions dedicated to the arcane, the uncanny, and that which falls between the cracks of discussion and display. It will take as its inspiration 19th century anatomical museums, eccentric private collections, dime museums and the studies of gentleman collectors. The Morbid Anatomy Museum will provide New York with a museum which is both intelligent and delightful; one which, like Charle's Willson Peale's Philadelphia Museum and London's Wellcome Collection, gives equal primacy to the educational AND the spectacular.

The Morbid Anatomy Museum will continue our long tradition of cultivating our unique community of collectors and the curious with lectures, symposia, spectacles and workshops; there will also be acafé/gift shop, and a "Morbid Anatomy Residency" wherein we host artists and scholars from all over the world--such as ceroplast Eleanor Crook, medical artist Emily Evans, Wellcome Trust engagement fellow Richard Barnett, and Ryan Matthew Cohn of TV's Oddities--to teach classes, give talks and make new work using the collection. The museum will also feature a temporary exhibition space wherein we curate intelligent and aesthetic shows drawing on the amazing and underseen world of private collections, and the kinds or artifacts which fall between the cracks of disciplines and institutional display. If you would like to learn more about this project, click here to watch a short film narrated by Evan Michelson of TV's Oddities, who is also on our board of directors.

As you can see, this is a very ambitious project. In order to make this space the most amazing and perfect space it can be, we are asking, on this #GivingTuesday, for your help. This is your chance to be personally involved in--and commemorated for that involvement!--in the creation of a one-of-a-kind museum.

To that end, we are in the process of recruiting founding members--people who believe in our mission and want to help make the nascent Morbid Anatomy Museum the very best thing it can be. Founding members will be commemorated permanently within the space in the form of metal ex votos engraved with their names; they will also be given lots of special perks (see below), as well as, of course, our undying gratitude and devotion.

To that end, we have three levels available; breakdown for each follows. Our non-profit paperwork has not yet been approved by the state; in the meantime, we are being fiscally sponsor is Brooklyn Arts Council, so all donations are 100% tax deductible.

If you are interested in becoming a founding member--or making any other donation!--simply click here. Feel free to email us with any questions at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

It's been a hundred years since anyone founded this kind of museum in New York and we're excited to announce our intention to make a mark on this city! It's really happening, and it's going to be a beautiful space with your help.